Pittsburgh Steelers President and head of the NFL Diversity Committee Art Rooney II released a statement on Thursday. The release of the statement was prompted by the lawsuit filed by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores against the NFL for racist hiring practices although Rooney does not discuss it specifically. Instead he wanted to review the Rooney Rule.
Here is the full statement from Rooney.
I am not going to comment on the specific allegations in the
lawsuit brought by Brian Flores, but I do want to comment on
,
the general state of affairs in regards to Diversity policies and
the NFL.
Over the past several years, our Diversity Committee has
recommended, and Ownership has adopted, a number of
enhancements to the Rooney Rule as well as new policies
designed to ensure that women and minorities are receiving full
and fair consideration for coaching and front office positions.
The details of these enhancements and new policies have
previously been made available. While I acknowledge that we
have not seen progress in the ranks of Head Coaches, we have
seen marked improvement in the hiring of women and
minorities in other key leadership roles such as Coordinator
positions, General Manager positions, and front office positions
both in and out of football operations. I believe this progress has
been made as a result of the implementation of many of the
enhanced policies that were recently adopted.The Commissioner and League Executives, as well as the
Diversity Committee, remain committed to working with all
clubs, the Fritz Pollard Alliance, and others in making these
efforts as effective as possible and building upon them to
promote the desired impacts on hiring decisions in the League at
all levels, including Head Coach positions.
